Time to go on offense.
February 10, 2024
Happy weekend, everyone!
It’s time to go on offense—in a big way. The national media has lost its mind. Don’t get me wrong: they were pathetic, lazy, and unprofessional before yesterday’s special counsel report. But the political hatchet job by special counsel Robert Hur was simply too much. They melted in a puddle of vibratory ecstasy that caused them to literally—literally, not figuratively—take leave of their senses.
As I write, the NYTimes has five stories about Biden’s age on its front page. Five. Not to be outdone in misleading the public, the Washington Post created a chart comparing how old Biden will be at the end of his second term with how old Trump will at the beginning of a second term. CNN abandoned coverage of yesterday’s Supreme Court argument to discuss the special counsel’s report non-stop. Most of the media is rooting for Trump to win and nearly dropped all pretense on Friday.
As Matt McDermott observed,
Four separate articles in the NYT today about Biden’s age today, including a 35-paragraph front page article on a verbal gaffe. Trump’s own verbal gaffes are mentioned once, 21 paragraphs [into the story], wherein we’re told they don’t matter because “voters do not question his sharpness.”
Hmm. Perhaps voters don’t question Trump's sharpness despite more frequent and serious misstatements because the NYTimes devotes an inordinate amount of coverage to Biden’s missteps but hardly mentions Trump's. The Times creates the dominant narrative and then claims it doesn’t have to report on the counter-narrative because voters aren’t interested in it! What arrogance!
Within the 24-hour window of the NYTimes raking Biden over the coals, the following Republicans misspoke but the Times reacted with indifference:
“An hour after Biden says the President of Egypt is the President of Mexico Trump says the Prime Minister of Hungary, [Viktor Orban] is the President of Turkey”—a repeated mistake by Trump on the campaign trail.
Speaker Mike Johnson confused the countries of Iran and Israel in an interview on Fox News, saying that the US has already “funded Iran” in the existing US budget—a mistake viewed as slanderous by the tens of millions of citizens in both countries.
Fox News infotainer posing as a journalist Jesse Watters introduced South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as the “South Carolina Governor.”
So, dear friends, it’s time for us to channel some of Joe Biden’s righteous anger demonstrated at his news conference yesterday. Watch this clip of Rep. Dan Goldman calling out an ABC anchor over her double standard regarding slip-ups by politicians who are not named Biden: Daniel Goldman on Twitter.
As Josh Marshall noted in Talking Points Memo, we need more of Biden’s righteous anger—not less. See Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, More Angry Biden, Please.
Marshall writes,
All of which is to say that it wasn’t just okay that Biden showed some anger. It was good. And he should do more of it. Both because people expect people to have normal and appropriate human responses . . . but also because it’s Biden showing some energy and direction. They should put him in front of reporters and the cameras more, not less. If you are responding to the tut-tutting and line-drawing of the prestige media, you’re losing. It’s as simple as that. You’re always either reacting or being reacted to. The latter is always better.
Josh Marshall’s advice was echoed by comments from a reader, who emailed me a note saying,
I am a former political campaign consultant (I worked for numerous candidates including a US Senator) and as I told [them] and everyone else I worked for: Our job is to make them afraid and panicked by what we are going to do to them. Not the other way around. Now, let’s get to it!
When I say that we must go on offense, I don’t mean that we must be gratuitously mean, creepy, and ghoulish (like special counsel Robert Hur). We need only seize the initiative in telling the truth. A federal judge characterized Trump's civil liability for sexual assault as a conclusion that he raped E. Jean Carroll. He attempted a coup and incited insurrection. He speaks in word salads that are dense and incomprehensible 100% of the time. His administration was moribund and corrupt to a degree unparalleled in our nation’s history.
We must stop cringing and flinching like a dog waiting to be disciplined with a wet newspaper. If someone raises Biden’s perceived deficits, be prepared to respond with chapter and verse of Trump's criminality, gibberish, and ignorant statements. Be prepared to criticize and condemn the journalists and on-air teleprompter readers who mindlessly repeat a non-story they created—just like they did with “Hillary’s emails.”
And we must go on offense, not just against the Times and WaPo; we must attempt to shape the narrative wherever local news sources continue to exist. They need to hear loudly that their reporting is ignoring the other side of the story—which is far, far worse than Biden’s misstatements.
And yes, we must also be prepared to recite Biden’s accomplishments. But that is not enough. We must be prepared to contrast those accomplishments to the vacuum and rudderless drift of Trump's term in office when nothing was accomplished other than increasing the deficit by giving millionaires and corporations tax breaks.
I understand that many people will be uncomfortable going on offense. Okay. Then, at least support those willing to do so—including the Biden campaign, which has been playing offense since early January. But whatever you do, please don’t unwittingly repeat Republican talking points by expressing your private fears and reservations about Biden (if you harbor them).
I wish we were not in this situation. But it is where we are, and Republicans are creating a false narrative. That false narrative will carry the day if we do not create a counterweight. So, let’s go on offense—by telling the truth loudly, forcefully, and with conviction.
Judge Aileen Cannon’s latest outrage.
I noted last week that Judge Cannon ordered Jack Smith to turn over information about witnesses and confidential FBI investigations. She made her ruling on the ground that Smith had failed to provide sufficient details about witness intimidation and the confidential investigation—a ruling that essentially told Jack Smith that he had to disclose the confidential investigation and witness information to protect their confidentiality.
Smith filed a motion for reconsideration, telling Cannon her order was “clear error” under 11th Circuit precedent. See Yahoo News, Citing witness death threats, Jack Smith asks Judge Cannon to reconsider ‘clear error’ in ruling.
Jack Smith then filed a document under seal—for the judge’s eyes’ only—that detailed information regarding the confidential investigation and the identity of eleven witnesses who cooperated in the Mar-a-Lago investigation.
Judge Cannon promptly ordered Jack Smith to turn that document over to Donald Trump's lawyers within 24-hours. This lightning order comes from a judge who has slow-walked the prosecution from day one.
Jack Smith has no option. He must file an interlocutory appeal of Judge Cannon’s ruling and then move to disqualify her. Unfortunately, that disqualification motion must be directed to her in the first instance. She is manifestly corrupt and incompetent and the 11th Circuit must act in order to preserve the tattered remains of judicial integrity in federal courts in Florida.
Opportunity for reader engagement.
On Tuesday, February 13 at 12 pm ET/9 am PT, BigTentUSA is pleased to host Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s 43rd Secretary of State and Wendy Weiser, vice president, Brennan Center for Justice. The conversation will be moderated by Wendy Weiser who directs the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center.
This event will provide an unparalleled opportunity to hear directly from Secretary Benson about her groundbreaking work in overseeing Michigan’s 2020 and 2022 general elections. These elections not only set records in voter turnout but also established new benchmarks in electoral security and transparency.
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Concluding Thoughts.
We are caught in a tricky balancing act. We must remain positive, forward-looking, and true to our principles. Otherwise, waging the fight will reduce us to the level of those we seek to defeat. If we stoop to their level, we will lose by winning. And yet, we must become more aggressive and less reactive without compromising the truth or our principles.
We cannot let it be written that we failed to preserve democracy because we were too polite and deferential, playing by rules that ceased to exist decades ago. Democracy faces an existential threat. It needs defending—and it deserves a vigorous defense. Half-measures are nothing. It’s time to go on offense—to preserve democracy.
Talk to you on Monday!
Dan Pfeiffer said it well following yesterday's sequence of events triggered by Hur's report. This Is a good response to people In your lives who will take this news as a fresh opportunity to dump on Biden: "It’s worth remembering that the election is a choice between a decent, accomplished 81-year-old man who cares about you and an incompetent, chaotic 77-year-old criminal who only cares about himself."
I have thought for a long time that one of the weirdest thing about the focus on Biden’s gaffes is that they aren’t necessarily new. Yet he has had a stellar career in public service and was well thought of by his Senate colleagues for particular skills such as closing deals and foreign policy. But now, for ridiculous reasons, gaffes are elevated to incompetence. (Even in the interview with Dan Goldman, the interviewer got her words twisted and said highest land in the office rather than highest office in the land. It struck me as evidence that things like that happen to all of us. Thoughts don’t quite come out with the right words, but we don’t jump to conclusions just on that basis alone.)